Judeo-Christian Values

The underlying theme of this article is the new American “Judeo-Christian” religion. “Judeo-Christian” used to be a respectable scholarly term for a tradition that includes both the Old and New Testament.

However, in the United States during the last three decades, Judeo-Christian has also become a powerful code word. Among Zionist neo-conservatives and Christian Zionists — especially politicians — it refers to a political and religious alliance among strange bedfellows.

“Judeo-Christian values” now justify the creation of an “Eretz (Greater) Israel” and the expulsion of millions of Muslim and Christian Palestinians from their ancestral homeland. The almost unanimous Congressional vote last month to support unconditionally Israel’s brutal aggression against Lebanon shows the power of “Judeo-Christian values” in America today.

“Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The Christian Zionist programme provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. In its extreme form, it laces an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ’s love and justice today.”